That new Swedish Tank

Finally, new content! And, this nation is going to be pretty unique. Wargaming will soon be releasing two lines of Swedish tanks, and started with the
VIStrv m/42-57 Alt A.2
(This tank seriously needs a usable nick-name, cause that’s a pain to constantly type out!). A tier 6 auto-loader with standard matchmaking but premium credit earning and crew training, I recently was gifted this tank to review and display, and will be available for gold in your garage probably for about 3,700 in patch 9.17. So, without further ado, let's get going!

Crew

This tank has three crew members, a Commander (also the Radio Operator and Loader), the gunner (also the loader) and a driver. Because there’s only three crew members and it’s a premium tank, I was quickly able to use a 200% crew EXP bonus and a 100% EXP bonus personal reserves over 4 hours of play to get a few basic crew skills started. I did free EXP 6th sense on the commander, as this skill is vitally important to survival in an auto-loader without armor. Currently, my crew is being trained as such;

Commander: 6th, Camo, Repairs*Gunner: Camo, Repairs Snapshot*Driver: Camo, Repairs, Smooth Ride*(* indicates this is the plan, as my crew is currently about 60% on its 2nd crew skill)

Loadout

Your standard ammo (Armor Penetrating, ‘AP’) has 148mm penetration, which is quite good for a tier 6 Medium Tank. Your premium ammo, (Armor penetrating, Composite Rigid ‘APCR’) has 190mm penetrating power, which is good as well. Neither round is over or under-powered, which is quite nice when it comes to both a premium tank or even a standard tank. Generally, I run with about 60% AP, and 40% APCR. I do not carry any High Explosive (HE). This works out to about 32 AP, and 28 APCR.

Equipment

Equipment is pretty straight forward. Until you have a highly skilled crew with vision skills, I recommend using Binoculars, Vents, and a Gun laying Drive. Eventually, with a highly skilled I would change the Binocs for Coated Optics. You’re unable to use a Vertical Stabilizer or a Gun Rammer.

Consumables

Like Equipment, consumables can be pretty straight forward as well. I use a small med pack, a small repair pack, and an auto extinguisher. The profitability is just good enough that you could drop the Auto-Ext for Food, and still make 5k to 15k credits profit with a Premium account.

Armor

Sometimes, you can pretend that you’re a jedi and block rounds with your gun, or your tracks can absorb some rounds. Other than that? Yeah, you don’t have any armor. Your best armor is excellent positioning without trading hit points.

The Good, the Average, the Bad

The Good:

You’re an Auto-Loader with a 2 second intra-clip reload, dumping 600 damage in 6 seconds

Overall Accuracy of the gun allows for sniping in the early game (Base .35 dispersion at 100m)

The Average:

700 Hit Points is lower for a tier 6 Medium Tank, but is keeping in trend with other autoloaders having less HP than other tanks in its tier

16 seconds drum reload time is alright when you’re not being pushed

Mobility is underwhelming

Camo feels very average

The Bad:

Your armor can be overmatched in some locations by essentially any gun you’ll face regardless of Matchmaking

Getting rushed early will render your tank almost useless the remainder of that match, if not dead.

If you’re not careful about exposing the front of your tank, your engine will be constantly knocked out

Hits to the turret will often damage your gun

Playstyle

If you’re a fan of the
XBat.-Châtillon 25 t
or
IXBat.-Châtillon 25 t AP
, you will love this tank. The key difference, however, is that those tanks have the ability to clip out the entire HP of an enemy tank. Early game, position in a location that your gun is in the fight, but where you’ll have support if you’re rushed. Getting into a 1v1 situation early in the game should be avoided if at all possible, as you will not be able to clip out tanks of equal tier before dying. Preserve your HP, and at the end of the game your tank will become stronger. Generally, most of your damage will come in the last 40% of a battle, while the first 60% of it you’ll spend it supporting other tanks or punishing tanks really out of position

Replays

Verdict

The
VIStrv m/42-57 Alt A.2
is a well balanced tank. The fact that it’s a premium in this case is simply a bonus. While the
VIT-34-85 Rudy
,
VIT-34-85
, or
VICromwell
are the standard bearers for this tier and tank type, this tank is a solid addition to the tech tree. I would rate it a 6.5 out of 10, and worth the gold.